A Report On The Translation Of Explorations In Empirical Translation Process Research (Chapter 4)

The source text selected for the translation report is “Measuring Effort in Subprocesses of Subtitling”,Chapter 4 of Explorations in Empirical Translation Process Research,a collection of essays edited by Michael Carl,Professor of the Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies of Kent State University.Inspired by some novel and creative topics in translation process research,the authors aim to investigate the relation between translation product and translation/post-editing process with various research methods.Centered on Machine Translation Post-Editing,Chapter 4 presents an empirical study of the subtitling process to explore the effects of different reference materials on temporary,technical,and cognitive effort.Deficiencies in relevant domestic research underline the importance of translating this book.The volume was published in 2021,and no Chinese translation is available on the market according to the translator’s knowledge.The source text,with a particular focus on subtitling process research,is logical in argument and profound in content.Lexically,such technical terms as “audiovisual translation”,“post-editing”,and “cognitive effort” are used extensively in the chapter where some specific words related to the study setup are coined.Vocabulary aside,the syntax of the source text is arranged in varied forms,making up masses of long complex sentences with multiple connectives.The obscure words and varied syntax present the translator with translation difficulties such as terms,neologisms,and abstract nouns at the lexical level as well as long complex sentences,parentheses,and passive voice at the syntactic level.Lexical problems are primarily discussed with the initial norm of Toury,with an emphasis on the compromise between acceptability and adequacy to produce a proper translation.In regard to translation at the syntactic level,various examples are provided to analyze the possible techniques under the guidance of operational norms,such as omission,splitting,and restructuring.